I arrived this morning to find Heather having a wash. After she was done, I said hello and tried to find things to keep her busy, as she has no personal TV on this new ward. Heather’s Dad had brought it a portable CD player a few days ago and along with some CDs that Nicky brought in, I asked her if she wanted to hear some music. I got a definite nod of the head, so once I checked the sound levels and let her pick out what she wanted to hear, I loaded Take That’s Greatest Hits into the player. Later on, I changed this for some Disney tracks, but these only made her cry (memories from our holidays to Florida have this effect on her), so I changed it for Ultimate Fame.
At 11:15am, I gave her some lemon tea as she needs to increase her fluid levels. However, after waiting half an hour for it to cool down enough for her to drink, she only had a few sips. Ten minutes later, the nurse came to check her stats.
Blood Pressure: 137/87
Heart Rate: 94 bpm
She even held out her own fingers for the oxygen test
At 11:45am, I thought I’d test her mind and did some crossword puzzles with her. I pretended not to know the answers, so she could do the work herself. Glad to say she answered most of the questions easily.
Lunch was a little late arriving today (most likely as she’s just moved wards). She had salmon salad (ate the salmon, but not much else), mash and some sort of apple dessert, along with more orange squash.
At 1:45pm, I left her to have a little rest before her visitors arrived, so I took lunch at this point to give her some quiet time. By the time I got back, I found her gone!!!! Turns out she had been moved to a ward closer to the nurses station, as she was too far away from them given her current needs.
At 2:30pm, Heather’s parents arrived and we all chatted about this, that and the other. John and I went for a coffee break during their visit and discussed Heather’s progress to date and our thoughts about Monday’s MRI scan. As we were down by the shop, we went in search of carrot cake for Heather. The League of Friends Shop in the William Harvey didn’t have any, but this one did!!! John bought some and we delivered it to a grateful Heather (although she didn’t eat much of it). Once problem that Heather told us about is that she is bored in there. Indeed without a TV, there isn’t a lot to do. John and Margaret are going to find some books for her. I’m currently charging up her Nintendo DS for her.
By 4:15pm, Heather’s parents left for the day. She was complaining of stiffness in her leg joints. Having realised that I’d not seen her undergoing any physio treatment today, I helped her with some leg bending exercises. She was able to help bending her own legs, but I helped her to give them a good workout. I later found out that the ward has had trouble getting physio to visit over the weekends. Well, I’ll make sure that Heather gets whatever she needs, even if we as family and friends have to provide it for her.
At 5:45pm, supper arrived. It was a ham and mustard sandwich and a pot of raspberry yoghurt (which we picked out earlier). She ate the sandwich herself (the first time she’s done that herself for a while), though the yoghurt being a two handed operation, I had to fed to her. I’m just glad she is eating again, but hope that the hospital can come up with some more palatable choices for her discerning palette.
I said my goodnights at 6pm and made sure she knew how to call for the nurses in case she wanted anything during the night.
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